Life is a mix of good and bad happenings and sometimes terrible things happen to people. Trauma is evident across our lifespan; it is part of our lives. Trauma may not exert the same demands on the individual when they get on with their lives or experience other positive aspects of what life has to offer; however, it does not change its form from trauma to growth -- it stays there etched into our psyche as trauma. In simple terms, growth occurs alongside the traumatic etchings. This is a book that will provide some answers to psychologists, counsellors, social workers and mental health workers about what happens to people who are traumatised and how they 'get on with their lives'; it also gives some excellent examples of how therapies can assist them in moving forward in life's journey.

Life is a mix of good and bad happenings and sometimes terrible things happen to people. Trauma is evident across our lifespan; it is part of our lives. Trauma may not exert the same demands on the individual when they get on with their lives or experience other positive aspects of what life has to offer; however, it does not change its form from trauma to growth -- it stays there etched into our psyche as trauma. In simple terms, growth occurs alongside the traumatic etchings. This is a book that will provide some answers to psychologists, counsellors, social workers and mental health workers about what happens to people who are traumatised and how they 'get on with their lives'; it also gives some excellent examples of how therapies can assist them in moving forward in life's journey.

While our first book in this trilogy on resilience, resourcefulness, coping and recovery is focused more on the positivist outlook on life's challenges, and the third book walks us through the heavy going of surviving trauma, this book focuses more on the 'know how', intra and inter psychically, about particular events that occur in life and how and why individuals react to them in different ways. Whether it is about internal resources, knowing how to tap into external resources, or how we determine that we are on the right path in life, this book examines interesting ideas and studies in the field of coping and survival.

Why the word Meltdown in the title of the book? With the world heating up, bush fires wiping out whole communities, money markets and economic systems collapsing, mining operations replacing quality farming land, factory chemicals poisoning the waterways, the natural environment being destroyed, and whole societies being displaced, we are indeed witnessing a meltdown. People are now very concerned and some are afraid for their futures. Does the human race, or at least sections of the populations in different countries of the world hold beliefs about, and attitudes towards, social and ecological issues such as climate change and futurist scenarios that are apocalyptic? In a completely different vein, are they prepared to take action about their environmentally unfriendly behaviours? Are all the natural disasters that have beset the world in the past decade an indicator that the world is about to end, particularly coupled with famine, war and pestilence, and lately the breakdown in the global economic systems, all having been prophesised by different seers and religious leaders? This book is timely and in some ways timeless; the issues discussed within its pages are matters that are of interest to all people across the world and really across time. In this book, there are a number of chapters that focus on the theoretical positions and cognition about fears and concerns for the future, in different segments of the world's population. There are other chapters that describe nature's situation as it is today, with water shortages, threats of sea-level rise, loss of forests, habitats and wildlife in various parts of the globe. These chapters demonstrate the complexities involved in attempting to understand which aspects relate to climate change, which aspects are distinct from climate change, and indeed which aspects were already in existence, but have been, and will be, exacerbated by climate change influences. The four basic elements of life - fire, water, earth and air - are covered by contributions on bush fires, floods, drought, water shortages, and air pollution.

For those who think that 2012 is the year for Armageddon, then you might take courage from this book on mass trauma and its companion book on individual trauma. The stories about disasters and traumas in the book span the globe, with a focus on the people from Australia, African, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Japan, Sri Lanka, and the USA. This book comes at a time when mass disasters and mass trauma abound. It is impossible to turn on the television and not see incidents of floods, earthquakes, wildfires, avalanches, and every kind of natural disaster, competing with air space with the latest updates on wars, terrorism, mass murders, civil unrest, famine and mass migration.

This book encompasses discussions between Kathryn Gow and Douglas Paton, both psychologists who have researched stress, burnout, trauma, and recovery in natural disasters. They suggest that few books have been written for health professionals, and persons directly involved with leading and managing emergency teams on what constitutes resilience in individuals and groups in communities, and how they differ in response and recovery. The outcome is a three part book with contributors from the field, research institutions, emergency service sectors, support agencies and the media. Its main purpose is to focus on the resilience of people and communities following NDs and to educate the sectors already involved in natural disasters.